Metropolitan Opera Archives

The Metropolitan Opera Company gave Rimsky-Korsakoff's "Snow Maiden" at the Academy of Music last night. The opera was sung in French, but the Russian atmosphere was realized in the outlandish picturesqueness of the scenery painted and the costumes by the imaginative Boris Anisfeld. Moreover, a leading figure in the cast was Ina Bourskaya, lately of the Russian Opera Company, who had the role of Lel the Shepherd, mortal lover of the Snow Maiden.

The story need not be retold in detail, since the Russian singers last year made it fairly familiar. In brief, the tale is that of the daughter of King Winter and the Spring Fairy, who inherits the paternal heart of ice, is adopted by an earthly pair of foster parents, is vainly wooed by Lel the Shepherd, and loses her life in finding love, when at last her heart is melted in the fierce ardor of the Sun-God's rays.

Lucrezia Bori, flitting from her white-mantled father to her green-skirted and jewel-crested mother in the supernal beginning of the story, and then caught up in a wave of villagers in fatal raiment of orange and green, to be adopted by two of their number, was charming and astonishingly child-like figure at first. Then as the distraught village maid who was a picture of lissome grace, sunning herself and knitting at the cottage door to the tune of Ell's impassioned yet vain wooing, and the distasteful importunities of the rich Mizguir. The singing in spirit and feeling bore out the strong appeal of the Micaela-like picture. In the palace of Czar she was particularly demure and charming, and won all hearts in the byplay with the benevolent Czar and the boorish Bobye.

Ina Bourskaya won laurels last season for her Shepherd Lel, and again she was a salient figure, with the deep-throated timbre of voice and buoyant earrings, realizing in the full the emotional potency of the famous aria, to which the poor Snow Maiden would like to yield if she could. Orville Harrold was adequately cast as the Czar.

A Radiant Presence

Marion Telva was a radiant presence as the Fairy of Spring. Leon Rothier imparted majesty and vocal resonance to the characterization of King Winter and other roles were filled acceptably. In particular, Angelo Bada clowned it uproariously as Boybe, and evoked laughter for the broad comedy value. There were amusing ballet maneuvers of birds and "bouffons" planned by the versatile Rosina Galli.

The scenery and costumes themselves sustained a role of heroic dimensions. The pendulous snow-hung boughs and the green hillside of the prologue were garish and flamboyant. The arch-roofed cottage of the first act blazed mid-stage, as red as a strawberry. The glorious palace of the Czar, the sacred priest, and the valley of the Sun God were gorgeously spectacular. And nothing could have been more effective than the orange and green and white apparel of the chorus against such backgrounds. The orchestra disclosed the full value of the instrumentalists under the guiding hand of Louis Hasselmans.

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